One of the biggest complaints I heard about Superman Returns was that it stayed too close to the pace and structure of Superman The Movie. The biggest complaint I have with Superman Returns, is that it didn’t.

In STM, the world we are introduced to is unveiled to us in a way that is focused and engaging (for the time) by introducing us to, and remaining with, the characters that matter to us. They matter to us because they set up who Superman will become and where he came from. By the time we have arrived in Metropolis we believe and are invested in Clark Kent and how this character is going to make his way in a world that is, for all intents and purposes, our own.

In Superman Returns, that 40 minutes of investment conveyed to us in STM is instead written for us on a text card. The introduction to Kal-El’s origins is a voiceover and the opening shot is of a Gothic mansion with manic characters. We are simultaneously being asked to believe in the film as a continuation of the world introduced to us in STM whilst in the first 6 minutes of the film we are told in no uncertain terms that this world is most definitely not that one, and we still have no character to attach to. When Superman does finally appear we have no idea where he has been and really, do we care?